


Green

by universal_reno



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Adorable Connor, Bullshit android science, But Only a Little Bit - Freeform, Climate Change, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Whump, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Hank is a Good Dad, Marijuana, Not Beta Read, Post-Game(s), Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Sleep Deprivation, sleepy Connor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 21:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16072151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/universal_reno/pseuds/universal_reno
Summary: When an extended spell of bad weather leaves Connor down for the count Hank turns to an old friend in an unexpected place to help him





	Green

**Author's Note:**

> I come again to inflict myself on yet another fandom. Because Connor is a precious killer angel baby who needs to be protected, and Hank is totally a damn hippy. I mean, come on, we've all seen his shirts.

Hank pulled back the curtains and sighed in exasperation. Rain again. It’d been rain for the last 12 days, and a mix of sleet and snow for a week and a half before that. According to the news it would be rain for another five days too. He’d spent most of his life hearing about the dangers of climate change, but those lectures had never included how bitchy people could get during increasingly frequent and lengthy bouts of bad weather.

The DPD had been as swamped as the city itself. Between traffic accidents and flooding and people straight up losing their shit after being cooped up inside for the better part of a month, calls were at a level not seen since the days immediately preceding Markus’s revolution the year before. Everyone at the department was lethargic and irritable because of the weather and the constant overwork only made it worse. Even Connor had snapped at him yesterday. 

He checked his phone and sighed again. 12:15 already. He was going to be late even by his standards. Since Connor had started staying with him he generally made it in by noon at the latest, which for him was an improvement. He’d gotten so accustomed to the kid waking him up that he hadn’t bothered to set an alarm, but for whatever reason there’d been no overly enthusiastic deviant to pester him into consciousness today.

“Connor? You around, kid? We gotta get to the office before Fowler skins us.” He opened his bedroom door and went out into the hall. The house was dark, but as soon as Sumo heard someone up he ran over and butted his head against Hank’s leg insistently.

“Fine, fine. I’ll let you out.” He’d long since given up on not having the house smell like wet dog anyway, even with Connor constantly cleaning the place. When he passed through the kitchen to open the back door he noticed Sumo’s water bowl was almost empty. That was Connor’s job too, and not one that he’d ever forgotten before. He loved Sumo almost as much as Hank did.

Once Sumo had been let out he went back to checking the rest of the house. It wasn’t unusual for Connor to go to work before him, but something about the situation didn’t seem right. He went to the door of Cole’s room (technically the guest room and now Connor’s room, but it would always be Cole’s room to him) and knocked. There was no response.

“Connor? You in there?” He pushed the door open and looked inside. The lights were still off, which made it even easier to spot his partner’s LED glowing steady yellow from where he laid perfectly still on the bed. Seeing him in sleep mode still gave Hank the creeps. The complete lack of motion made him look more dead than asleep.

“Connor? Hey Connor!” He wasn’t yelling, but he was being more than loud enough to wake the kid from anything but his deepest hibernation mode, and that only got used when he was repairing from major damage. He flipped on the lights for good measure, but still got no response. What’s more the extra light revealed a cable running from the data transfer port behind Connor’s ear to a plug socket beside the bed. That definitely wasn’t normal. A few weeks after the revolution Hank had finally gotten bored and curious enough to read the RK800 manual, and he knew that port wasn’t meant for charging. There’d been nothing in there about charging at all, actually.

He was almost afraid to approach the bed now. Had Connor tried to electrocute himself? He’d never seemed suicidal, but then there were probably a fair number of people who would swear that Hank himself didn’t seem suicidal so that clearly didn’t mean much.

“Hey son. It’s getting pretty late. You planning on waking up today?” He sat down on the edge of the bed and brushed a few errant strands of hair away from Connor’s eyes. The android made a quiet, almost pained sound and rolled onto his side with his back to Hank.

Connor’s first thought when he woke from sleep mode was that he wanted to scream. This wasn’t a gradual realization, as unlike a human there was no groggy waking up period for him. Also unlike a human his version of sleep had no restorative function. At best it was a way to conserve stored energy, but frequently it actually expended it since it was also the time when his maintenance and repair programs ran.

As soon as he opened his eyes a warning popped up in the corner of his vision.

**Charge at 3% Enter low power mode?**

He looked to the left to dismiss the warning. He’d been at 7% the previous night. The lack of sun for the last several weeks had made it difficult to recharge his energy reserves, and the heavy workload was doing plenty to deplete them.

“Morning Hank.” His voice had an edge of static. His programming was fairly well demanding that he power down all non-essential systems, which included the ability to speak. The cable had been a last ditch effort to regain some energy but his data port could only handle 5V which didn’t do much.

“It’s afternoon now. I didn’t think you could oversleep.”

He wasn’t supposed to be able to oversleep. If he had it meant a malfunction with his system clock, which was a pretty core functionality. Even when he was still a machine it would have been cause for a full diagnostic, but since he’d become a deviant it also made him nervous.

Hank sounded even more worried, though, and Connor hated making him unhappy more than pretty much anything else in the world.  He forced himself to sit up, but the extra effort was enough to trigger a reset of his optical system. The world went black and he cursed softly.

“You damaged? What’s wrong?” Hank was getting more worried by the second. Even after hanging around with him for over a year Connor rarely talked like that. He pressed his hand to Connor’s cheek and found his skin unusually cold.

“You gotta talk to me, son. What’s wrong and how can we fix it?”

In response Connor only whimpered and let his head rest against Hank’s shoulder. His optical system finished rebooting and the first thing he saw was a warning about 2% charge remaining. He didn’t know for sure what would happen if it got to 0, other than that there was the potential for permanent data loss.

“I’m tired.” His voice sounded strange to his own ears, and he wasn’t sure which of the subsystems currently being impacted was the cause. “Was trying to recharge but it didn’t work.” He tugged at the cable but couldn’t find the strength to disconnect it.

“Didn’t think you needed to recharge.” Hank gently disconnected the cable and Connor’s LED immediately switched from yellow to red. “Shit. What can I do to help?”

“Nothing.” Connor shook his head weakly. “Needs to be some sun. That’s the only way my systems are designed to charge.”

“There’s gotta be something. Doesn’t make sense for this to happen just because it’s raining.”

“It’s not a problem for most models, but I draw more power than any of them. Plus I’m only a prototype. CyberLife hadn’t worked out all the bugs yet when they went bankrupt. They basically sent me to the DPD for beta testing.”

It was useless trying to keep his eyes open any longer. His optical system would be shutting down any minute now whether he consented to it or not. He gave one last frightened little glance up at Hank and then hid his face against his shoulder.

“Stay with me please” he mumbled. “Not so cold when you’re here.” And it had been cold, dreadfully so. And it hurt, or at least it felt like the condition Connor had decided best represented pain for an android. A mix of fear and struggling against the limits of his programming and his hardware.

“I’m right here, son. Hang on alright? Try to conserve as much energy as you can.” Hank gathered the duvet closer around Connor and held tight to his hand. Even as Connor’s processing capability was dwindling Hank’s mind was going a mile a minute. There had to be something that would help.

Then it struck him. There were grow houses all around the city. At first they’d just been for marijuana in the earliest days after the state had legalized it, but as the weather had gotten progressively more unpredictable people had started growing damn near every crop imaginable in massive warehouses. If the lights were powerful enough to allow everything from wheat to oranges to thrive maybe they’d be enough to help Connor too.

“Connor, can you hear me? Think I might know how to fix this.” He shook the android slightly but got no response. When he glanced down he saw his LED was pulsing red. The only time he’d seen that before was when Connor was seriously hurt.

“Shit. Stay with me, son.” He wrapped Connor’s arm around his shoulders and pulled him to stand. It was slow going getting him out to the garage and into the car. Whatever low power state he’d gone into rendered him a deadweight. But he managed, and in a few minutes he was speeding out of the neighborhood with Connor curled up in his duvet in the back seat.

 ------------

Connor had half expected to shut down for good that day. His only comfort was knowing that Hank would be with him when it happened. So it came as rather a shock when he opened his eyes and found himself staring into a dazzling light. He’d done death before, albeit temporarily, after being shot by the same deviant who’d killed Ortiz and he knew there was no white light at the end of a tunnel or any of that other nonsense where androids were concerned.

He lay blinking up at the light in surprise, breathing slow and deep in an effort to keep his internal components at an optimal temperature. If this was some kind of an afterlife it was a rather warm one. It also smelled like ganja. Connor tried to focus on the leaves above his head between him and the light. He reached for the nearest one, then pressed his finger to his tongue.

**_Cannabis sativa_** his HUD informed him. **THC concentration 16.18%**

 He sat up slowly and looked around. Way up above him and the plants and even the lights the ceiling was a patchwork of exposed beams and duct work. The small windows at the top of the wall allowed in the same faint grey light that had been the source of so much trouble for him the past few weeks. He still felt a bit weak and dizzy, but a quick diagnostic showed his energy reserves at 33% which was higher than they’d been in days.

“Connor!” A moment later Hank was crouched down beside him and pulling him into a tight hug. Connor snuggled against him, glad for a familiar presence in such a disorienting situation.

“Where are we?” Was the first thing he could think to ask, but before Hank could answer another man appeared beside them.

“Eden Farms” the newcomer supplied.

“My database contains six locations in the state of Michigan called Eden Farms, three of which are in Detroit.”

“Well, this is the original one.” The stranger sounded more amused than offended. “And also the best one.”

Hank released his hold on Connor and went to stand by the other man.

“Connor, this is Omar Hernandez. Former member of the DPD SWAT team. We were at the academy together.”

Omar knelt down beside Connor and held out his hand which Connor shook out of habit, still too confused to fully process the situation.

“And now you’re a… cannabis farmer?”

“Hank and I took different paths after the legalization.” Omar looked up at Hank with a knowing grin. Hank rolled his eyes but was clearly amused. “Good thing too. You were in pretty rough shape when he brought you here.”

“There hasn’t been adequate sunlight to fully replenish my energy reserves for 27 days, four hours and 32 minutes.” Just thinking about it made Connor want to lay down again. “But it appears your grow lights provide the correct wavelength and intensity for charging.”

“The plants certainly seem to think so.” Omar smiled again and Connor was struck by how much younger he looked than Hank. Maybe he’d suggest his partner take up gardening. He gave Connor a friendly slap on the back before he stood up and offered him a hand. “C’mon, we got a hammock set up while you were sleeping. You’ll be more comfortable there.”

Connor allowed himself to be hauled to his feet and lead over to an area in the center of the warehouse where a backyard hammock had been assembled next to a mini fridge and a couple of lawn chairs.

“I sit out here with the plants sometimes. They like to be kept company, and it’s super chill.”

Under the circumstances Connor refrained from mentioning to Hank that his friend might be crazy, albeit apparently the harmless kind. He climbed into the hammock with a lack of grace that made it clear he’d never used one before.

“You can stay here as long as you want. Your dad and I got a lot to catch up on.” Omar pulled a cigarette case from his pocket and took out a joint. He offered it to Connor who looked confused.

“Thank you, but I don’t think it’s possible for me to…”

“Christ, the kid almost died a couple of hours ago. Stop trying to get him high.”

“It’s therapeutic!”

“For humans, maybe.” Hank took the joint and lit it for himself. He took a long drag and passed it back to Omar before going back over to Connor. “Rest up” he said, and ruffled the other detective’s hair affectionately. “I’ll be right here if you need anything.”

Connor nodded and carefully rolled over to curl up on his side. He was still getting used to the hammock and really didn’t want to end up getting dumped on the floor.

“Hank, I thought you hated drugs.”

Hank shrugged. “It’s like Omar said. It’s therapeutic. Or maybe I’m just a fucking hypocrite.”  

“I’ve never noted hypocrisy to be among your more substantial personality flaws…”

“Connor, rest. You almost died, remember?” Hank cut him off before Connor could share his efforts at personality analysis with the group.

“Of course.” Connor obediently closed his eyes, but before Hank could walk away he caught his hand and held it against his chest. “Thank you. For looking after me I mean.”

Hank smiled down at him fondly. “Any time, kid. Any time.”


End file.
